Housewife Who Stoned Sons Found Not Guilty

http://www.foxnews.com/ ^ | 4/3/04 | http://www.foxnews.com/

[don-o]

Bought the insanity?

[don-o]

Bought the insanity?

[zook]

Apparently. No details yet.

[OneTimeLurker]

Old Testement defense?

[thoughtomator]

Contact high?

[martin_fierro]

I would not feel so all alone.

Everybody must get stoned.

<|:/~

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[mlmr]

The plea should be Guilty but Insane.

[don-o]

Not having followed the case very closely, I think this maybe was a correct verdict. What say y'all?

[ladyinred]

NO! The court system is a joke. Poor children, she will be found guilty by a higher court.

[zook]

If God told her to do it, then why would she call 911?

[nmh]

A travesty again.

She should have been stoned. Wait a minute ... I think I hear God talking to me ... yes, He's telling me to STONE HER! Gota run and get over there and stone away.

[don-o]

Are you saying that insanity defense should never be allowed?

[Richard Kimball]

From what I'm hearing, this was pretty much a slam-dunk. The prosecution couldn't find any psychologist or psychiatrist to state she was sane, and ended up arguing with their own witnesses. Many years ago, a friend of mine made a call on a guy who had beaten an eighteen month old child to death by grabbing him by his feet and swinging him into walls and coffee tables like a bat. He was a long time drug user and thought the child was a robot that was trying to take over his mind. The man was found not guilty by reason of insanity, but later gouged his own eyes out in the facility where he was being kept.

Some people really are insane.

[deport]

Mother acquitted in sons' stoning deaths

07:57 PM CST on Saturday, April 3, 2004

By LEE HANCOCK / The Dallas Morning News

TYLER - Deanna Laney was found not guilty by reason of insanity after a jury deliberated for almost six hours in her capital murder case.

Mrs. Laney admitted killing two of her sons by bashing their heads with rocks. She struck and maimed a third son. She said God told her to kill the boys as a test of faith.

Neither she nor her husband Keith Laney showed visible emotion as judge Cynthia Kent read the verdict. One juror wiped away tears and another looked stricken.

She now faces civil commitment proceedings within the next 30 days. She was returned the Smith County jail and the next hearing will be on Tuesday before Judge Kent to determine how the commitment hearing will proceed.

Mrs. Laney's parents hugged the family's pastor and her sister wiped away tears, but they and other family members were silent as they left the courtroom.

Jurors began deliberating Mrs. Laney's fate about noon Saturday after lawyers for both sides said her capital murder case turned on two terrible things: the horror of three bloody battered boys and the haunting question of why

AP

Deanna Laney hangs her head during closing arguments in her capital murder trial.

[Hank Kerchief]

If God told her to do it, then why would she call 911?

God told her to do that too.

Hank

[don-o]

If God told her to do it, then why would she call 911?

Crazy people do crazy things.

[zook]

No, because that's the point--calling 911 was a rational thing to do.

[deport]

I think there were four or five psychologist or psychiatrist used in the case and they all pretty much agreed that she didn't know what she was doing.... or that is how I've read the news accts which can be far from what actually happened in the court room.